Unleashing Music High-Flyer, Abel ‘Black’ Luninga

Abel Black Luninga is a music entrepreneur with experience in music marketing, PR, strategy, artist brand development, event management and content distribution.

His interaction with music spans over a decade starting initially as a rapper and the one half of CA3. He later transitioned into music distribution and was one of the co-founders and developers of the Kountapoint music platform.

Kountapoint later created a music label division called Kountapoint Records (KPR) and Abel was responsible for heading it. Through KPR Abel had his first experience managing artists and worked with the likes of Genesis, Offbeat Tre, Chisiki, Names Martian, Mx Fafo and a few others.

During this time he also developed an artist branding and management agency initially called The Abstract Club under which he worked with artists like Malachi, Andy Mez and Tashy. The agency was later rebranded to Xplode+.

With the experience from Kountapoint and working with artists, Abel developed another platform called The Adlib Music Service that was meant to unify all music platforms in Zambia under one umbrella with one payment channel that would work via a subscription model. The idea was not adopted by the top music platforms and as a result, was eventually pivoted into a single platform idea called Beatmouse. Beatmouse was eventually launched but the model it used relied heavily on new and exclusive content and not enough artists had signed up to provide that content and fully kick off the platform.

After the fail of Beatmouse, Abel got back to artist management and signed SuperRhymer under Xplode+. Together they released the single “Roll Out” which was followed up with the release of the “Take Over EP”. Abel also signed Keisha Chilufya to Xplode+ with “Make Me Whole” being their first release with her.

Abel’s work ethic caught the attention of Mag44 who approached him to help run the Brave Only Music label and offered to take up SuperRhymer under Brave Only Music as part of the deal. Abel went ahead with the deal and worked with Brave Only Music starting with the releases of “Mulomo”, “Baam Kilikicho” and the Brave Only Music “Next Is Now” concert”. But not long after, the label was dissolved and Brave Only was restructured into an artist development hub. After the restructuring, Abel diverted his efforts back to Xplode+ this time concentrating only on Keisha Chilufya.

Abel Black later created Zambian Influencer, a platform meant to document the events and people shaping the Zambian culture leaning heavily on the arts and entertainment side of things. The platform is mostly known for having crafted the most viral Twitter thread in Zambian Twitter history.

Abel also runs his personal brand as Abel Black where he performs the never-ending task of saving the music industry.He executively produced the “Cause & Effect” EP by Genesis, the “UnderXposed” mixtape by Blck Sh33p, the “Take Over” EP by SuperRhymer, the “Kwesi’s Daughter” 1&2 EPs by Keisha Chilufya and the “Before I Begin” Album by gEO.

Miscellaneously, over the years, through design, strategy, marketing, consultation or other means Abel has worked with and helped the careers of notable public figures like Esther Chungu, Livin2Die, SuperRhymer, Stone, Loose, Geo, Luka Mwango, Sticka, Solomon Plate, Mag44, Malachi, Keisha Chilufya, Petronella, Mikrophone7 and Andy Mez.